Kazakh leader raps police for security lapses

July 12, 2012|Reuters

* Nazarbayev "not satisfied" with law enforcement bodies

* Calls for better counter-terrorism work

* Police open terrorism case after house fire near Almaty

ALMATY, July 12 (Reuters) - Kazakh President NursultanNazarbayev rebuked his secret police for lapses after thediscovery of guns and religious literature on Thursday in thegarage of a house destroyed by fire.

Nazarbayev said law enforcement agencies, including theCommittee for National Security (KNB), successor to theSoviet-era KGB, were not gathering enough intelligence toprevent militant groups from operating in the Central Asianstate.

"As president and guarantor of the constitution, I am notsatisfied with the work of law enforcement bodies, particularlythe work of the KNB," Nazarbayev was quoted as saying on thepresidential website, http://www.akorda.kz.

"The efforts we are making are not effective enough," hesaid in a stinging rebuke, calling for an overhaul ofcounter-terrorism strategy and better coordination betweendifferent law enforcement agencies.

Nazarbayev, in power since Soviet times, gathered the headsof the country's law enforcement agencies a day after eightpeople, including four children, died in a house fire in thevillage of Tausamaly, close to the commercial capital Almaty.

Local media had quoted neighbours as saying they heardseveral loud blasts from the house before the fire in the earlyhours of Wednesday. Early reports identified gas canisters asthe most likely cause of the fire.

But prosecutors in Almaty region on Thursday launched aninvestigation into the "preparation of terrorism", theprosecutor-general's press service said in a statement on itswebsite, http://www.prokuror.kz.

It said a search of the premises had uncovered guns,ammunition, police uniforms and religious literature. Theidentities of those who died have not yet been established.

"According to preliminary data, a large arsenal of weaponsand explosive devices has been found. And once again, we arefinding out after the fact," Nazarbayev said.

Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest and most successfuleconomy, had until last year not witnessed outbursts of Islamistmilitancy seen in other parts of Central Asia, a former Sovietregion lying to the north of Afghanistan.

But a string of blasts and shootouts have fractured an imageof stability in the oil-producing country of 16.7 millionpeople, where 70 percent of the population is nominally Muslim.

"We need to recognise that there are radical, extremistelements in the country who are putting enormous pressure on thestate and on society as a whole," Nazarbayev said.

"People are outraged by the inability of law enforcementofficers to prevent these crimes. Officers are dying because ofthis lack of professionalism."

Security forces have been the main target of previousattacks. The deadliest happened last November, when an Islamistmilitant killed seven people, including five policemen, during arampage through the southern city of Taraz.

Two police officers were killed in December in a shootoutwith a suspected militant group in a village outside Almaty.

The government has adopted a new law on religion which manyanalysts have interpreted as a means to crack down on religiousmilitancy.